Kodak today has announced the discontinuation of all 300, 500, and 600 series cameras from their pro DCS product line. With Kodak now producing no digital cameras on the Canon platform, professional photographers looking for a Canon-based digital SLR have but a single choice of cameras currently in production - Canon's own EOS D30.

In a morning press release, Kodak Professional's Madhav Mehra, Worldwide Director of Digital Capture Product Development, indicates that the company currently has no plans to bring to market a new digital SLR for Canon shooters:

(Kodak Professional's) relationships with Canon and with Nikon, which commonly involve aspects of both cooperation and competition, remain good. There currently are a number of valid business and technical reasons for concentrating on the Nikon platform.

"We're well aware of the importance - both to our business and to the professional photographer community - of being able to offer both Nikon-based and Canon-based cameras in the marketplace," Mehra said. "It's possible we will offer a Canon-based camera in the future. At the same time, Kodak Professional offers the most extensive portfolio of professional digital cameras in the business - and that portfolio will grow."

Kodak promises to provide service and support for discontinued models until at least "well into 2005."

If you want a DCS 520, then, you'd better act fast: Kodak's Jay Kelbley indicates they have some stock of the 2MP Canon EOS-1n-based digital SLR in both the US and Europe. Canon USA's Chuck Westfall reports that the EOS D2000, the DCS 520's twin marketed by Canon, is still part of Canon's US inventory too.

The DCS 315, DCS 330, DCS 560, DCS 620x and DCS 660 (colour) are not to be found in Kodak's warehouses, however.

Kodak's portfolio of cameras for pros now comprises three models, plus a marketing arrangement with a scanning back vendor: the 6MP DCS 760, 2MP, high-ISO DCS 720x, 16MP DCS Pro Back and the four different models of backs from Better Light, all of which use Kodak CCD sensors. In addition, the DCS 660 monochrome camera will be available until at least the end of this year.